Good reason for confusion 3: Time and action

While the battles were raging on, I was working in a Palestinian camp, a couple of miles to the south of Nahr el Bared. I was coordinating the activities of a group of early teenagers comprised of Lebanese and Palestinians residents of Baddaoui and a group of displaced Palestinians from Nahr el Bared. The month long workshop’s general theme was that of peace and how the youth could play an active part in promoting and advancing it. The whole topic was thought of months before the Nahr el Bared battle. It felt quite out of place but I had not time to work on the topic, to adapt it to the current situation. There was a need for something to be done and I couldn’t answer that need. That was terribly frustrating. During one of the sessions we touched on violence and fear. It was a very interesting hour, probably the most interesting hour that month; thought provoking and emotionally very raw. It ended with almost everyone in teers. The youth were expressing their views on peace and violence. And while doing that, they expressed their feelings about the Nahr el Bared battles. Those who had fled the camp talked about what they had left behind, what they had lost, what they had kept and brought with them. Those who were Baddawi residents talked about how they saw the IDPs, and tried to relate to their experience. It was very intense.
I knew that there was something there to work on, but couldn’t see how I could modify the program accordingly. So after that session, the facilitator went back to the original plan and put all that was exchanged in brackets.

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